#(and in my views on being neuroatypical in a neurotypical world. sometimes using ''being normal'' as a euphamism for

[nobody-knose--archive]

don’t get people who do hashtag normalposting or like reacting to things with “i’m so normal about this” & variations thereupon. because when i’m feeling all sorts of passionate about something or another i gain far more enjoyment from being all Ooooh i’m so sucked into this. oh baby my mind is on this thing all the time, like some kind of mother bird. watch my neurodivergence churn. i can get verbose about it too like gee fucking whillikers i could shoot to the moon and back again right now. and on the return trip i have this thing clutched in my arms. no need to say i’m normal about it when the alternative is so fun

[dxmedstudent]

hey! thoughts about going into medicine when you have social anxiety?

Hello! I will always stand by the belief that nobody should tell anyone that medicine is not for them. Everyone has the right to try for themselves, and to see if whether it works for them. To be honest, everyone is different. If we see human behaviour as a spectrum, then rather than just viewing things in terms of ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’, or ‘neurotypical versus ‘neuroatypical’, rather that we all show a wide spectrum of behaviours, ways in which we think and ways in which our brains have grown to function. A doctor I saw recently regarding my own mental health reminded me that even feelings of anxiety are normal and not inherently irrational; what differs is their severity and the effect they have on our lives. Even taking people with the symptoms of anxiety compatible wth what we’d describe as social anxiety, there’s a spectrum in terms of how it affects people. So for this reason, I could never give one answer as to whether medicine is right for someone with social anxiety, or whether everyone with social anxiety would be happy with medicine. I’m sure that some would, and I suspect that some would not. I’ll be honest, medicine does involve a lot of contact with people. Quite a bit of talking to strangers. Lots of phone calls to colleagues you’ve never met. The phone calls get less horrific; they used to be scary, now they’ve become routine. Lots of ‘presenting’ a patient’s case to seniors or peers, and learning to put the most salient information first. Sometimes persuading people to do things. Actually, it’s mostly persuading people to do things, in various guises. Sometimes it’s arguing your case against other colleagues. Being silvertongued would be really valuable in medicine; you learn to be persuasive as possible. That’s not actually the hard bit; if you don’t persuade someone, you don’t. The scariest bit is when people don’t see eye to eye, or when people aren’t very nice. But you can have horrible bosses or customers anywhere; medicine is no different in that respect.  These are things that many people can work towards overcoming, and I’m sure that with the right support some people with social anxiety would do very well in medicine. But what is good for someone, and what someone can tolerate, is different for each person. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel that they had to subject themselves to something that made them miserable. Speaking from having followed the stories of friends, colleagues, and medics who talk about their experiences, there are a lot of factors that can influence what the right decision is for someone. Some people might need extra support; speaking to the GP to assess how bad the anxiey is, what the triggers are, and what can be done to manage it or work towards making things less of an issue. Having it recognised and discussing with university can also make a huge difference in helping to manage problems as they come up at university. The difficulty with struggling isn’t often just the struggling, it’s the way in which people judge you when you do. And the assumptions people make about your competence when they don’t know you are ill can cause problems in themselves. People can be quick to judge others or think them incompetent when what they really need is help. People can be harsh on divergent behaviour, and in those cases having it recognised on paper as a disability or illness can be really helpful in forcing people to take it seriously and treat people fairly. Some people manage to study and work in medicine despite their mental health problems; in fact it makes them more reflective, understanding docs. Others need extra support and accommodations. And some people find that they are happier in other jobs, or that what they need for their mental health is different. And that’s OK. I do think that people with all sorts of conditions and ways of looking at the world have probably always gone into medicine.Bearing in mind that diagnosis and self-diagnosis used to be less prevalent (there was no internet, no webMD, no tumblr for people to share experiences), it’s hard to know how many people struggled, and how many people did the best that they could, scraping by.  Each story is different, only you know what yours will be like Take things one step at a time, and remember that help is always out there. I hope this helps :)